Biorefinery of sunflower press cake for foodpurposes

The objective of this project is to develop mild biorefinery processes for sun flower press cake that (a) are highly efficient from an eco-perspective (low energy and water use, high biomass valorisation efficiency), (b) maintain natural functionality of important components, and (c) generate non-pure but application-dedicated fractions. At the same time there would be an effort towards (d) understanding the interactions between the various ingredients and possible ways to avoid them or even exploit them in order to create novel structures.

Additionally, (e) enzymatic treatment will be applied to investigate their use to disintegrate the complexes and enhance the ingredient functionality. Furthermore, insights will be obtained about any (f) opportunities concerning enzymes, like their use or the production after press cake fermentation. Finally, (g) a physicochemical functionality comparison between protein fractions obtained from cake and seeds will be made in order to study the effect of different oil extraction processes on their functional properties.